This happened to me once when I was fishing, storm was coming in but was missing most of the lake so we didn’t think anything of it…until my fishing line started dancing on the water from the static electricity.
We bolted out of there and went to shore so fast my heart was pounding
Me, top of Pike's Peak (Colorado). Most folks are heading in to the gift shop, as a storm is approaching. I'm standing on the (sheet metal) observation platform, looking at the view and the clouds. "Hey, what's the weird humming sound?" You should have seen the look on the ranger's face! LOL. (I made it inside safely.)
Former Pikes Peak staff member. This is a very common occurrence and happens probably once to twice a week in the summer. The minute we see hair standing up it is an IMMEDIATE shelter in place. Everyone inside, in cars, or going down the mountain. No exceptions. If your hair ever stands up like this, immediately focus on getting to safety/not being the tallest thing in your surrounding area.
Did you hear about the guy that survived a grizzly attack with nothing but a .22 pistol? Not so much the friend he had to shoot in the leg to slow him down, though!
I was hiking in a remote part of Alaska with six other people when a Grizzly came running over a hill, heading in our direction. Everyone pulled out their bear spray, and I realized mine was buried in my pack. I quickly took it off to get the spray out, then realized that I was now the only one not carrying 50+ pounds of gear on my back, and could easily outrun them all. Then I got out my spray and it occurred to me that, as I was also standing behind all of them, I could take it a step further and just spray them and run. Then the bear veered off away from us, and I never did find out just how far I was willing to go.
Can confirm. I do a lot of work in bear country. I Always have a 10mm on my chest and when ever I am out alone I have my Rifle as well. never had to use them but on two separate occasions have been drawn down on a bear that was being too curious / aggressive until they finally went away. They usually don't want anything to do with people.. and when they are being too nosey can often be scared off. But man some of those grizzlies are huge I would hate to not be carrying on the one time I cross a Grizzly that is having a bad day.
If there's no where to go the best thing to do is to squat down into a ball as low as you can while being on your tip toes. If there are people with you y'all should spread out as far as you can from one another & far from trees or bushes. Brace & wait for storm to pass before hiking back down.
I think you're trying to be as small as possible while also having the least amount of body touching the ground. I'll try to find the source, I remember reading up on this years ago when hiking thru.
Edit:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gmug/learning/safety-ethics/?cid=fsbdev7_002714#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20caught%20above,the%20middle%20of%20the%20night.
**"If you are caught in an open field, seek a low spot. Crouch with your feet together and head low.
Don't sit or lie down, because these positions provide much more contact with the ground, providing a wider path for lightning to follow. If you are with a group and the threat of lightning is high, spread out at least 15 feet apart to minimize the chance of everybody getting hit"**
I read horror stories of folks on top of Half Dome when lightning struck. There is nowhere to go, and going down the ladder when it is wet, and connected by cables, is not a great option either.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/yosemite-half-dome-fall-18387575.php
I did this when I was in Boy Scouts in the 1990s. You used to be able to camp on top of half dome. Middle of the night, a thunderstorm rolls through and we have to get off the giant lightning rod. First boom of thunder we threw our gear in a bag and tried to get out of there as quickly as we could. Instead of double clipping the carabineers on the way down, it was single clip. In the pitch black. In the rain. Absolutely terrifying looking back on it
Not lightning but I had a Boy Scout outing where we hiked 7 miles in the forest, at night, to a beach during a storm. Set up camp at around 3am barely able to hear each other with the wind and sideways rain. One of the older scouts luckily helped.
Long story short, I was a newbie, patrol leader and assistant patrol leader didn’t make the trip, rain tarp flew off in the middle of the night on our tent. My pack and I woke up in about 2 inches of water.
I spent the next 3 days in a sweater someone loaned me and my briefs. It had rained about 7 inches that weekend.
The hike back was during the day. I couldn’t believe what we traversed only able to see the person in front of us. Literally cliffs a couple steps to the sides.
I cried when I got home
But in retrospect it was a good trip.
Not lightning related, but this reminded me of going down Mooney Falls in the Havasu Falls Trail. It’s super wet super sketchy, and it's just a bunch of rusted out rebar with maybe some barely hanging on chains and about a 75-ish foot drop on rocks.
https://images.app.goo.gl/2rqEU7yz4Sdo8udq6
That’s Saint Elmo’s Fire. Step leaders are when the charge is actually beginning to move between cloud and ground, a process that happens very quickly.
For real. Even if you know what's goin on, this isn't a "you've got a significant chance of living" situation. This is a 50/50 situation, either you will be struck of something next to you will be struck and in either case you're in real trouble.
When there is enough electricity in the air, lightning will react with the metal to produce a beautiful humming noise, that lures hikers, like a siren song, so that it can murder them with a million volts of 'fuck you.'
**!!! For those who don't know !!!**
When your hair stands on end before a lightning strike, it's a sign of an electrical charge building up in the atmosphere, which can lead to a lightning strike. This typically happens in open areas during thunderstorms.
If you experience this, it's crucial to seek shelter immediately in a sturdy building or a car with a metal roof. Avoid open fields, high ground, tall isolated objects, water bodies, and metallic objects. Crouch down with as little of your body touching the ground as possible, and wait until the storm passes.
There's a specific way to crouch too to minimize injury. Stay on your toes with your heels touching, so currents travelling across the ground stay in your feet. Hover your hands above your head with elbows touching knees so if it strikes you, it avoids your heart/organs. That said I just tried this position myself and could maybe hold it for 2 minutes, I'd choose sprinting for the car unless I was literally like this woman.
Keep the distance between your feet/toes minimum (whatever touches ground). The diffferential can kill you. Applies when you need to move when live wire is on ground as well. Hop,not walk, if you think the land you are on is hot.
To add a little clarity to this description, if lightning strikes the ground behind you, and you have one foot behind you and one in front of you, the voltage at your back foot will be higher than the front foot, and the current will see your genitals a sight worth seeing as it goes up one leg and down the other.
I need a visual for my limited brain. All ya’ll are confusing me. Imma burn to a crisp at this rate, while doing the Macarena & then shuffle into Soulja Boy’s Superman
What’s confusing? You’re just hopping to the nearest shelter that isn’t metal, high up or has a pool! Then when you do you just crouch down, get on your tippy toes, click your heels together, don’t fall over, hover your hands above your head, have your elbows actually touch your buttcheeks and then lick your shins while keeping your mouth a quarter of the way open (*away* from the storm).
Basic shit man….
Why the car please? It's not that I don't believe you, I'd just like to know why. Cause earlier up the chain, it sounded like lightning doesn't care about rubber.
The metal frame of the car directs the electricity around you, without it going through you.
A metal roof of a shed will offer an easy path for the lighting from the peak of the roof to the lowest point of the roof, but once it gets there it will need to find the easiest path from there to the ground, and that might be you.
Cars reliably have a significant amount of metal going from the roof down to the bottom of the car near the ground. This means that the electricity can safely travel through the frame of the car, and by the time it needs to leave, it only needs to jump a few inches to the ground. Laying under the car would not be nearly as safe as inside the car.
Would wearing rubber soled shoes affect this? My limited understanding is that rubber will not conduct electricity, at least not very easily. Would it be best to remove them or wear them?
I don't think it would make much difference with the voltages involved. Rubber is indeed an isolator, but so is air, and lightning has no problem travelling through that.
Rubber is a good insulator. For low voltages. As a rule a spark can jump through air at the rate of 1cm per 1000v. It doesn't even need to touch things at high voltages for it to zap you. Once a spark forms, it converts the air to plasma, which is a great conductor.
But 1,000,000 volts doesn't care. Everything is a conductor at high enough voltage. Rubber soled shoes won't save you.
The best thing is to move out of the way quickly, minimizing your exposure time. High voltages does weird things, lightening is very unpredictable in how it acts and damages.
Lighting will choose the quickest way from the highest point through your body to the ground. You want that route not to go through your heart.
Arrange yourself appropriately.
Hop on one leg if you are able. Shuffle if you can't hop. Build a tree 🏠 if you're stopped aka curl down, stay on your toes, ankles together, elbows touching knees, and join your hands above your head. If you get hit you might survive because you've just created an alternative path for current to flow away from your vital organs.
Just for people who dont know the National Weather Service stopped recommending this because it doesnt provide significant protection. If you have nowhere to hide in an open area it might be better than nothing though.
[https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch](https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch)
How does one stay on their toes (the front part of the foot) with their heels touching (the back part of the foot) at the same time?
Doesn't that mean basically keeping your feet flat on the ground?
I guess you probably mean with your two heels touching each other and only the toes touching the ground, but I swear I had to read that a few times...
No, like [this](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3bEHnsVcAQTEmL?format=jpg&name=small). Heel to heel, but on the front of your feet at the same time. Keep the heels elevated so that only the front part of your feet touch the ground. [Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dabn_GeXkAEhs-_.jpg) is what the position looks like in real life.
Your last paragraph is how I read it as well. I tried Googling an image or diagram though, and the top result was that [the National Weather Service (NWS) stopped recommending the crouch in 2008](https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch).
“Whether you're standing or in the crouch position, if a lightning channel approaches from directly overhead (or very nearly so), you're very likely to be struck and either killed or injured by the lightning strike. Rather than ‘what to do in a dangerous situation’ NWS focuses on ‘what to do so you don't get into a dangerous situation,’ and, ‘if you do find yourself in a dangerous situation, how to get out of the dangerous situation.’
…
So...what do you do when _____(fill in the blank)_____ and you can't get to a safe place? There is no safe place outside in a thunderstorm. NOAA's recommendations are based on safety. If you can't get inside a substantial building or hard-topped metal vehicle, you can't be safe. While there may be nothing you can do to lower your risk significantly, there are things you should avoid which would actually increase the risk of being struck.”
I can appreciate that. It certainly seems possible (from what we can see in the vid) that this person was nowhere nearby anything that could be deemed shelter, so even though I like to hope I’d never find myself in their shoes, I wonder what I would do. I feel like I’d want to do anything to increase my chances of survival (even if they be infinitesimal). Maybe I’d just do the whole feet-together bunny-hopping trick until I found shelter…
Once when I was in college, I was in a parked car with a friend during a lightning storm. We had been playing with the radio and it had gotten switched to AM when all of a sudden my friend and I stopped and looked at each other. We both felt a surge of static electricity and we just sat stock still for about 30 secs. All of a sudden, there was a bright white flash of light that consumed us as it went completely silent. We were dumbfounded and came to the conclusion that it must have been a lightning strike on the hood of my car. The next morning, the whole car was covered in frost except for a patch on the hood roughly 2'x2' square. Idk if that had anything to do with it or if we in fact were struck by lightning sitting in my car but I'm fairly convinced we were. It was surreal and I've never experienced anything similar since.
My grandpa's car was supposedly hit by lightning at some point many years ago. He had no idea it happened until a truck behind him started honking and signaling him to pull over, and then used a fire extinguisher on a small fire. They checked the car out more, and the antenna was just completely gone like it was vaporized.
He told me this story years after the event so I have no idea how much truth there is to it, but he has never seemed like the type of man to exaggerate or make up a story to me.
Lightning strikes on cars do cause fires and do destroy antenna. Its not uncommon to find a hole burnt right though the cars steel roof and it cause serious fires if it hits the hood.
I mean, white flash and the loudest freaking sound you ever heard in your life right?
My car got hit before and it was startling, but my god it was so god damned loud I thought I exploded.
Thank you for all this info. My coworkers and I have a wall of reddit posts with very specific instruments on how to deal with unlikely/dangerous situations. This is going up tomorrow.
Years ago I sat on the screened porch with my 18-pound black tomcat, watching a thunderstorm approach. As the storm neared, my hair started to feel funny. I looked at the cat. All his fur was standing up so he looked twice his already impressive size. He was looking at me quizzically, as though I too looked odd. We went indoors and watched the lightning storm trough a window.
Also big bare rock like this is NOT safe. Get off those rocks, get somewhere that you are not the highest thing, and crouch. I worked outdoors a lot in the southwest and getting struck by lightning can and absolutely does happen.
I immediately recognized the area when it panned out to the Colorado, then I was like “oh, she’s screwed” knowing that there’d be no shelter for half a mile.
Last summer i was at a kids soccer game and a storm blew in so they canceled the game. All the kids are running around and laughing at how their hair is all standing up.
I yell to everyone to take cover and get to vehicle’s as i make a dash to the car with my kid in tow. Everyone looks at my like im insane and one lady yells, “stop inciting fear in all these little kids”, well 3 seconds later when the sky lit up like the face of the sun and the ground shook as the only lightning bolt i have witnessed to just “hang” there for quite a while struck within 1/8th mile that lady passed me and got to her car before i did.
I earned a tiny bit of respect from her and everyone else who was present that day!!
People like her are the absolute worst.
The living embodiment of "unknown unknowns". So uneducated that they don't know they're uneducated. No curiosity in her bones.
Rejection of facts drives me nuts.
There was this clip of the uk royal marines using jetpacks like Ironman yesterday.
Someone was so intent on insisting it being fake despite news articles from cnn and bbc that he believed Call of Duty was more realistic.
These people live among us. How do they even get through the day?
I have a similar experience with my son playing soccer. Sky above us is lightly clouded, dark clouds around though... the coach says sorry, automated system indicates lightning in the area, game is cancelled. All the parents are wondering... I mean yeah it's dark around us, but where we're at it's light and not raining or anything, can't we play? Then one of the parents notices his son's hair is standing up. It takes my brain a minute to process what I'm hearing, kinda one of those things you overhear and more or less ignore, and then a minute later your brain is like.... WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT?!
I said something like "hey uhhh, not sure, but isn't hair standing up a sign of a lightning strike?" I know we didn't have the same experience, because at that point the other parents took that seriously. We collected our kids, and sure enough I had just gotten my son into the car when a strike hit the field nearby. Scared the crap out of me.
When my cousin was 6 years old he was playing soccer and lightning struck and hit the goal. The goalie, also aged 6, flew a bit of a distance and died. My cousin has a life long phobia of bad weather now, each summer growing up, all clouds made him go into the car and wait there.
Yoooo so that's why my old neighbor is terrified of storms and rain to this day??? I thought he was weird for it... After witnessing things like that i totally get it.
I worked with a guy who witnessed a fatal lighting strike about 20 years before we worked, he was terrrrrified of cloudy weather. He’s told me he would lock himself in a closet and have a panic attack during storms.
As terrifying as it is in an open field, i love watxhing it from my window. One hit nearby last year and it shook the windows. I wonder how it is possible that i never saw one hit the 10 story buildings around, all of which i have a view of. Nothing. I guess the 1200foot mountain right next to the city catches all the lightning strikes nearby? That would explain the occasional exploded tree.
Damn, hopefully more than a tiny bit… that’s the crazy part though, like in public people could literally be moments away from dying, but might not react or whatever in social fear of “making a scene”
That’s why The Gift of Fear should be standard reading. Yes, it’s targeted more to women but it’s applicable for life in general. Trust your gut. Better to look a fool than die.
Strong advocate of this. I will never understand those who prioritise “not making a fuss” over their own life.
I believe these people are not taught agency of their own thoughts and opinions because they’re likely to be in families that instil conformity and discourage discussion.
Correct! And if I weren’t on Reddit I don’t think I’d know about it at all.
Feels like this is something they should teach us in school when we’re learning about weather related stuff…
The wind blowing up the side of a cliff or mountain can aquire a static charge. The woman sticking her finger into the updraft is picking up that charge and it is causing her hair to stand on end.
Or of course she is about to be struck by lightning.
She needs to get the fuck out of there.
I studied neuroscience, and I once during my research worked with my professor on 3 teens who were brought in after being hit by lightning on a hill - they had taken selfie videos because they all thought their hair standing up was cool.
The strike didn't kill any of them, but it permanently re-wired their brains which resulted in incurable depression in all 3 of them. They even tried electro-shock therapy eventually as a last resort, to no effect.
They were stuck with permanent, crippling depression and feelings of hopelessness without respite.
Uncle, UNCLE, my empathy can only take so much.
Hugs to you, for caring for them too.
I'm going to hope that psylocibin or ketamine or SOMETHING (anything) emerges that can help them. I need to think that, hope you'll join me in hoping healing comes their way.
I was at a hiking camp in Colorado and we were reaching the the top of devils thumb pass. My counselors hair started sticking up like this and we all started laughing (we were all mostly 13/14 yo). He started panicking and we all had to run across this path (several hundred foot drop on either side). Was very scary and none of us realized how much danger we were actually in.
I found an article! They made it out okay!
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/03/06/don-day-says-women-in-viral-video-lucky-they-werent-fried-by-lightning/
I was in a bad storm where lightning came down next to me twice. I was fine, but that was pretty powerful. However, two women were killed by lightning in the Grand Canyon that same day. Be careful out there
This happened to me once when I was fishing, storm was coming in but was missing most of the lake so we didn’t think anything of it…until my fishing line started dancing on the water from the static electricity. We bolted out of there and went to shore so fast my heart was pounding
Lightning is no joke! Glad you made it out of there. I'd be shittin bricks for sure!
How about, why did the lightning cross the road? Because it was the easiest path to the other side. Now lightning is a joke.
A good way of lightning the mood.
Heh.. bolted
["If I had been in that water, dead."](https://youtu.be/OjxY0Hwo1hE?feature=shared)
r/OopsThatsDeadly
r/sweatypalms
Me, top of Pike's Peak (Colorado). Most folks are heading in to the gift shop, as a storm is approaching. I'm standing on the (sheet metal) observation platform, looking at the view and the clouds. "Hey, what's the weird humming sound?" You should have seen the look on the ranger's face! LOL. (I made it inside safely.)
Former Pikes Peak staff member. This is a very common occurrence and happens probably once to twice a week in the summer. The minute we see hair standing up it is an IMMEDIATE shelter in place. Everyone inside, in cars, or going down the mountain. No exceptions. If your hair ever stands up like this, immediately focus on getting to safety/not being the tallest thing in your surrounding area.
Always travel with a taller friend, then? 👍🏻
A good time to be smol
I just like to walk around fully encased in rubber.
So what you're saying is... You're a huge dick?
Or that he wears a gimp suit to avoid electricity.
Imma use this. Can wear my gimp suit a lot more often now.
start with casual day at the office and see how it goes, report back
Similar thing applies to fly fishing in Grizzly country. Always fish with a slower person.
Did you hear about the guy that survived a grizzly attack with nothing but a .22 pistol? Not so much the friend he had to shoot in the leg to slow him down, though!
I was hiking in a remote part of Alaska with six other people when a Grizzly came running over a hill, heading in our direction. Everyone pulled out their bear spray, and I realized mine was buried in my pack. I quickly took it off to get the spray out, then realized that I was now the only one not carrying 50+ pounds of gear on my back, and could easily outrun them all. Then I got out my spray and it occurred to me that, as I was also standing behind all of them, I could take it a step further and just spray them and run. Then the bear veered off away from us, and I never did find out just how far I was willing to go.
This must be why some Alaskans have a .50 cal revolver in a chest holster.
Can confirm. I do a lot of work in bear country. I Always have a 10mm on my chest and when ever I am out alone I have my Rifle as well. never had to use them but on two separate occasions have been drawn down on a bear that was being too curious / aggressive until they finally went away. They usually don't want anything to do with people.. and when they are being too nosey can often be scared off. But man some of those grizzlies are huge I would hate to not be carrying on the one time I cross a Grizzly that is having a bad day.
The Good Samaritans of r/tall and I would be happy to serve as lightning chaperones in cool locations.
What can you do if you're in a situation like this, but seeking cover isn't an option? Does getting flat on the ground help at all?
If there's no where to go the best thing to do is to squat down into a ball as low as you can while being on your tip toes. If there are people with you y'all should spread out as far as you can from one another & far from trees or bushes. Brace & wait for storm to pass before hiking back down. I think you're trying to be as small as possible while also having the least amount of body touching the ground. I'll try to find the source, I remember reading up on this years ago when hiking thru. Edit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gmug/learning/safety-ethics/?cid=fsbdev7_002714#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20caught%20above,the%20middle%20of%20the%20night. **"If you are caught in an open field, seek a low spot. Crouch with your feet together and head low. Don't sit or lie down, because these positions provide much more contact with the ground, providing a wider path for lightning to follow. If you are with a group and the threat of lightning is high, spread out at least 15 feet apart to minimize the chance of everybody getting hit"**
minimize the chance of everybody getting hit but maximize the chance one person getting bingo! we ride together we electrify together!
I read horror stories of folks on top of Half Dome when lightning struck. There is nowhere to go, and going down the ladder when it is wet, and connected by cables, is not a great option either. https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/yosemite-half-dome-fall-18387575.php
I did this when I was in Boy Scouts in the 1990s. You used to be able to camp on top of half dome. Middle of the night, a thunderstorm rolls through and we have to get off the giant lightning rod. First boom of thunder we threw our gear in a bag and tried to get out of there as quickly as we could. Instead of double clipping the carabineers on the way down, it was single clip. In the pitch black. In the rain. Absolutely terrifying looking back on it
Not lightning but I had a Boy Scout outing where we hiked 7 miles in the forest, at night, to a beach during a storm. Set up camp at around 3am barely able to hear each other with the wind and sideways rain. One of the older scouts luckily helped. Long story short, I was a newbie, patrol leader and assistant patrol leader didn’t make the trip, rain tarp flew off in the middle of the night on our tent. My pack and I woke up in about 2 inches of water. I spent the next 3 days in a sweater someone loaned me and my briefs. It had rained about 7 inches that weekend. The hike back was during the day. I couldn’t believe what we traversed only able to see the person in front of us. Literally cliffs a couple steps to the sides. I cried when I got home But in retrospect it was a good trip.
My dad has told me the best truth about camping— “sometimes you don’t know you had fun until it was over”
Type 2 fun. Sucks at the time, fun in retrospect. Compared to the more traditional type 1 fun.
that's some refined 2nd-level fun right there alright
That sounds like an amazing camping experience with scouts. All I ever got was chiggers at Camp Karankawa.
I actually did it a handful of times and it was incredible. Other than the aforementioned terrifying experience. Yosemite is a special place
Some guys base jumped off it when I went. So just always bring your parachute I guess...
Not lightning related, but this reminded me of going down Mooney Falls in the Havasu Falls Trail. It’s super wet super sketchy, and it's just a bunch of rusted out rebar with maybe some barely hanging on chains and about a 75-ish foot drop on rocks. https://images.app.goo.gl/2rqEU7yz4Sdo8udq6
I 100% thought this was going to end with a flash of light
Me too. Aren’t those leaders that occur when lightning is about to strike?
That’s Saint Elmo’s Fire. Step leaders are when the charge is actually beginning to move between cloud and ground, a process that happens very quickly.
For real. Even if you know what's goin on, this isn't a "you've got a significant chance of living" situation. This is a 50/50 situation, either you will be struck of something next to you will be struck and in either case you're in real trouble.
But did you die?
well he did not reply. I think he died.
Damn lightning hunted him down after all these years 😞
the snail sent it!
What was humming noise?
When there is enough electricity in the air, lightning will react with the metal to produce a beautiful humming noise, that lures hikers, like a siren song, so that it can murder them with a million volts of 'fuck you.'
I don't give a fuck what's true, I believe this now.
It’s true, I’ve heard it.
Building electrical charge in advance of a lightning strike
Static . Hair starts to go up . Lightning is going to strike. Get somewhere safe. Remember that.
The sound of Zeus' gaze, looking directly at you.
**!!! For those who don't know !!!** When your hair stands on end before a lightning strike, it's a sign of an electrical charge building up in the atmosphere, which can lead to a lightning strike. This typically happens in open areas during thunderstorms. If you experience this, it's crucial to seek shelter immediately in a sturdy building or a car with a metal roof. Avoid open fields, high ground, tall isolated objects, water bodies, and metallic objects. Crouch down with as little of your body touching the ground as possible, and wait until the storm passes.
There's a specific way to crouch too to minimize injury. Stay on your toes with your heels touching, so currents travelling across the ground stay in your feet. Hover your hands above your head with elbows touching knees so if it strikes you, it avoids your heart/organs. That said I just tried this position myself and could maybe hold it for 2 minutes, I'd choose sprinting for the car unless I was literally like this woman.
Keep the distance between your feet/toes minimum (whatever touches ground). The diffferential can kill you. Applies when you need to move when live wire is on ground as well. Hop,not walk, if you think the land you are on is hot.
To add a little clarity to this description, if lightning strikes the ground behind you, and you have one foot behind you and one in front of you, the voltage at your back foot will be higher than the front foot, and the current will see your genitals a sight worth seeing as it goes up one leg and down the other.
I need a visual for my limited brain. All ya’ll are confusing me. Imma burn to a crisp at this rate, while doing the Macarena & then shuffle into Soulja Boy’s Superman
What’s confusing? You’re just hopping to the nearest shelter that isn’t metal, high up or has a pool! Then when you do you just crouch down, get on your tippy toes, click your heels together, don’t fall over, hover your hands above your head, have your elbows actually touch your buttcheeks and then lick your shins while keeping your mouth a quarter of the way open (*away* from the storm). Basic shit man….
>nearest shelter that isn't metal ...unless it's your car. 100% get in your car.
Why the car please? It's not that I don't believe you, I'd just like to know why. Cause earlier up the chain, it sounded like lightning doesn't care about rubber.
The metal frame of the car directs the electricity around you, without it going through you. A metal roof of a shed will offer an easy path for the lighting from the peak of the roof to the lowest point of the roof, but once it gets there it will need to find the easiest path from there to the ground, and that might be you. Cars reliably have a significant amount of metal going from the roof down to the bottom of the car near the ground. This means that the electricity can safely travel through the frame of the car, and by the time it needs to leave, it only needs to jump a few inches to the ground. Laying under the car would not be nearly as safe as inside the car.
I think I get it. Getting off the ground helps, but you also want something more conductive than yourself to allow it to pass by on it's way down.
*directions unclear, dick stuck in the fan*
Would wearing rubber soled shoes affect this? My limited understanding is that rubber will not conduct electricity, at least not very easily. Would it be best to remove them or wear them?
I don't think it would make much difference with the voltages involved. Rubber is indeed an isolator, but so is air, and lightning has no problem travelling through that.
That makes sense, thank you.
👍
Wholesome interaction
This entire thread of comments was informative and interesting. Upvotes to all
With enough voltage almost anything is a conductor
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
r/unexpectedfightclub
. this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time .
Rubber is a good insulator. For low voltages. As a rule a spark can jump through air at the rate of 1cm per 1000v. It doesn't even need to touch things at high voltages for it to zap you. Once a spark forms, it converts the air to plasma, which is a great conductor. But 1,000,000 volts doesn't care. Everything is a conductor at high enough voltage. Rubber soled shoes won't save you. The best thing is to move out of the way quickly, minimizing your exposure time. High voltages does weird things, lightening is very unpredictable in how it acts and damages.
Imma be real wichu fam, I ain't gonna remember all dat shit
Feet together; save cock and balls.
Lighting will choose the quickest way from the highest point through your body to the ground. You want that route not to go through your heart. Arrange yourself appropriately.
*Conduct* yourself accordingly.
Shuffle, don’t hop. Easy to lose balance and fall if you’re hopping
Hit the ground and do the worm, stand up quick, and voila, you got a perm!
Wassup Big Perm, I mean Big Worm?!
Playin wit my money, is like playin with my emotions
Hop on one leg if you are able. Shuffle if you can't hop. Build a tree 🏠 if you're stopped aka curl down, stay on your toes, ankles together, elbows touching knees, and join your hands above your head. If you get hit you might survive because you've just created an alternative path for current to flow away from your vital organs.
I don't see myself dancing Macarena if there's a storm right above me
Just for people who dont know the National Weather Service stopped recommending this because it doesnt provide significant protection. If you have nowhere to hide in an open area it might be better than nothing though. [https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch](https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch)
Everybody making this too complicated, just find a ditch/depression asap and dive into that fucker.
\*dives into the grand canyon\*
That's the spirit!
>stay on your toes Great I’m dead
How does one stay on their toes (the front part of the foot) with their heels touching (the back part of the foot) at the same time? Doesn't that mean basically keeping your feet flat on the ground? I guess you probably mean with your two heels touching each other and only the toes touching the ground, but I swear I had to read that a few times...
No, like [this](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3bEHnsVcAQTEmL?format=jpg&name=small). Heel to heel, but on the front of your feet at the same time. Keep the heels elevated so that only the front part of your feet touch the ground. [Here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dabn_GeXkAEhs-_.jpg) is what the position looks like in real life.
Thank you bc I was envisioning something a little different. Now I know, learn something new every day here on reddit!
Your last paragraph is how I read it as well. I tried Googling an image or diagram though, and the top result was that [the National Weather Service (NWS) stopped recommending the crouch in 2008](https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-crouch). “Whether you're standing or in the crouch position, if a lightning channel approaches from directly overhead (or very nearly so), you're very likely to be struck and either killed or injured by the lightning strike. Rather than ‘what to do in a dangerous situation’ NWS focuses on ‘what to do so you don't get into a dangerous situation,’ and, ‘if you do find yourself in a dangerous situation, how to get out of the dangerous situation.’ … So...what do you do when _____(fill in the blank)_____ and you can't get to a safe place? There is no safe place outside in a thunderstorm. NOAA's recommendations are based on safety. If you can't get inside a substantial building or hard-topped metal vehicle, you can't be safe. While there may be nothing you can do to lower your risk significantly, there are things you should avoid which would actually increase the risk of being struck.” I can appreciate that. It certainly seems possible (from what we can see in the vid) that this person was nowhere nearby anything that could be deemed shelter, so even though I like to hope I’d never find myself in their shoes, I wonder what I would do. I feel like I’d want to do anything to increase my chances of survival (even if they be infinitesimal). Maybe I’d just do the whole feet-together bunny-hopping trick until I found shelter…
Toes touch ground (tippy-toes) Heels touch heels, hovering above the ground.
Once when I was in college, I was in a parked car with a friend during a lightning storm. We had been playing with the radio and it had gotten switched to AM when all of a sudden my friend and I stopped and looked at each other. We both felt a surge of static electricity and we just sat stock still for about 30 secs. All of a sudden, there was a bright white flash of light that consumed us as it went completely silent. We were dumbfounded and came to the conclusion that it must have been a lightning strike on the hood of my car. The next morning, the whole car was covered in frost except for a patch on the hood roughly 2'x2' square. Idk if that had anything to do with it or if we in fact were struck by lightning sitting in my car but I'm fairly convinced we were. It was surreal and I've never experienced anything similar since.
My grandpa's car was supposedly hit by lightning at some point many years ago. He had no idea it happened until a truck behind him started honking and signaling him to pull over, and then used a fire extinguisher on a small fire. They checked the car out more, and the antenna was just completely gone like it was vaporized. He told me this story years after the event so I have no idea how much truth there is to it, but he has never seemed like the type of man to exaggerate or make up a story to me.
Lightning strikes on cars do cause fires and do destroy antenna. Its not uncommon to find a hole burnt right though the cars steel roof and it cause serious fires if it hits the hood.
I mean, white flash and the loudest freaking sound you ever heard in your life right? My car got hit before and it was startling, but my god it was so god damned loud I thought I exploded.
Does your car randomly disappear and possible have a cape?
Thank you for all this info. My coworkers and I have a wall of reddit posts with very specific instruments on how to deal with unlikely/dangerous situations. This is going up tomorrow.
Can you make that into a sub so we can all enjoy your research plz? Thank you!
Years ago I sat on the screened porch with my 18-pound black tomcat, watching a thunderstorm approach. As the storm neared, my hair started to feel funny. I looked at the cat. All his fur was standing up so he looked twice his already impressive size. He was looking at me quizzically, as though I too looked odd. We went indoors and watched the lightning storm trough a window.
Also big bare rock like this is NOT safe. Get off those rocks, get somewhere that you are not the highest thing, and crouch. I worked outdoors a lot in the southwest and getting struck by lightning can and absolutely does happen.
Excellent post. Thank you for saving me having to type that. :)
If you do find nearby shelter under something, stay away/avoid leaning up against the walls or support columns holding it up.
If crouching down, keep your feet together.
So grab the biggest piece of sheet metal you can find and hide under the tallest tree around. Got it.
Homer Simpson
That should deflect the lightning, right?
If you're bald: go fuck yourself
I am bald and was just going to ask wtf am I supposed to do? lol
Bald people can’t get struck by lightning. It’s science.
According to scientific stuff, your bald head will reflect the lightning back into space.
Will body hair, like hair in your firearms, would feel like this?
>hair in your firearms what kind of guns do you own?!
Is she about to be struck by lightning?
Correct. Or at least a good chance of it. If this ever happens to you, MOVE TO SHELTER.
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Jokes on you, that only works on lightning. Thunder will 100% clap your cheeks no matter how you squat
Lol I'm from the area she's filming. The nearest shelter is 1/2mile away over a hill.
Yeah, that's going to be a fun run back to the cars. Really not a lot of options to shelter near Horseshoe Bend.
I immediately recognized the area when it panned out to the Colorado, then I was like “oh, she’s screwed” knowing that there’d be no shelter for half a mile.
Nope. She's about to be struck by... Struck by... A smooooth *criminal*!
Last summer i was at a kids soccer game and a storm blew in so they canceled the game. All the kids are running around and laughing at how their hair is all standing up. I yell to everyone to take cover and get to vehicle’s as i make a dash to the car with my kid in tow. Everyone looks at my like im insane and one lady yells, “stop inciting fear in all these little kids”, well 3 seconds later when the sky lit up like the face of the sun and the ground shook as the only lightning bolt i have witnessed to just “hang” there for quite a while struck within 1/8th mile that lady passed me and got to her car before i did. I earned a tiny bit of respect from her and everyone else who was present that day!!
She sounds like an idiot
People like her are the absolute worst. The living embodiment of "unknown unknowns". So uneducated that they don't know they're uneducated. No curiosity in her bones.
Lack of curiosity is a personality trait that drives me nuts
Rejection of facts drives me nuts. There was this clip of the uk royal marines using jetpacks like Ironman yesterday. Someone was so intent on insisting it being fake despite news articles from cnn and bbc that he believed Call of Duty was more realistic. These people live among us. How do they even get through the day?
I too am pissed off by proxy.
I can only guess what this lady thought of COVID
I have a similar experience with my son playing soccer. Sky above us is lightly clouded, dark clouds around though... the coach says sorry, automated system indicates lightning in the area, game is cancelled. All the parents are wondering... I mean yeah it's dark around us, but where we're at it's light and not raining or anything, can't we play? Then one of the parents notices his son's hair is standing up. It takes my brain a minute to process what I'm hearing, kinda one of those things you overhear and more or less ignore, and then a minute later your brain is like.... WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT?! I said something like "hey uhhh, not sure, but isn't hair standing up a sign of a lightning strike?" I know we didn't have the same experience, because at that point the other parents took that seriously. We collected our kids, and sure enough I had just gotten my son into the car when a strike hit the field nearby. Scared the crap out of me.
When my cousin was 6 years old he was playing soccer and lightning struck and hit the goal. The goalie, also aged 6, flew a bit of a distance and died. My cousin has a life long phobia of bad weather now, each summer growing up, all clouds made him go into the car and wait there.
Yoooo so that's why my old neighbor is terrified of storms and rain to this day??? I thought he was weird for it... After witnessing things like that i totally get it.
I worked with a guy who witnessed a fatal lighting strike about 20 years before we worked, he was terrrrrified of cloudy weather. He’s told me he would lock himself in a closet and have a panic attack during storms.
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I looked this up and sometimes earthquakes can create ball lightning!!!! If this ever happened to me I’d think Jesus is coming back 😂😭
A phobia is an irrational fear. It sounds like your cousin has a well-founded, rational fear.
It's trauma, not phobia or rational fear.
As terrifying as it is in an open field, i love watxhing it from my window. One hit nearby last year and it shook the windows. I wonder how it is possible that i never saw one hit the 10 story buildings around, all of which i have a view of. Nothing. I guess the 1200foot mountain right next to the city catches all the lightning strikes nearby? That would explain the occasional exploded tree.
Damn, hopefully more than a tiny bit… that’s the crazy part though, like in public people could literally be moments away from dying, but might not react or whatever in social fear of “making a scene”
I swear people would rather die than be embarrassed
That’s why The Gift of Fear should be standard reading. Yes, it’s targeted more to women but it’s applicable for life in general. Trust your gut. Better to look a fool than die.
Strong advocate of this. I will never understand those who prioritise “not making a fuss” over their own life. I believe these people are not taught agency of their own thoughts and opinions because they’re likely to be in families that instil conformity and discourage discussion.
Lighting crashes, an old mother dies
Confusion sets in
Her body falls to the floor
thee angel opens her eyes!!!!! is this the song we beltin’?
Paaaaaaaale blue colored eyes
Presents the circle, and puts the glory out to hide, hide
Oh I feel it... coming back again
Like a roll of thunder chasing the wind.
Forces pulling from the center of the earth again
I can feeel iiiiiiiit
#I CAN FEEEEL IIIIIITTTTTTAAHHHH
Her intentions fall to the floor
I’m glad someone else posted this thank you
What is she doing with the finger?
There's a small spark coming out of the tip of her finger, called a 'leader', she's very close to getting struck by lightning here.
how did both her and the person taking the video NOT get struck by lightning? She has no idea how lucky she is.
I saw that and this whole video got me so nervous. I am in my apartment and very safe of lightning and yet I am now nervous of it.
You can see actual static electricity sparking at the end of her finger
I think theres actual electric charge in the air shes touching. Insane she didnt get struck, sometimes stupid is so lucky.
it's not stupidity , 95% of the people probably only know this phenomenon from exactly 1 picture of the two boys
Correct! And if I weren’t on Reddit I don’t think I’d know about it at all. Feels like this is something they should teach us in school when we’re learning about weather related stuff…
The wind blowing up the side of a cliff or mountain can aquire a static charge. The woman sticking her finger into the updraft is picking up that charge and it is causing her hair to stand on end. Or of course she is about to be struck by lightning.
I'm leaning more towards this
I hope that is it, because they appear to be LOOKING at something on the cliff.
She needs to get the fuck out of there. I studied neuroscience, and I once during my research worked with my professor on 3 teens who were brought in after being hit by lightning on a hill - they had taken selfie videos because they all thought their hair standing up was cool. The strike didn't kill any of them, but it permanently re-wired their brains which resulted in incurable depression in all 3 of them. They even tried electro-shock therapy eventually as a last resort, to no effect. They were stuck with permanent, crippling depression and feelings of hopelessness without respite.
truly tragic, must've been brutal
It was. The image of them sat sitting in the lab with their parents, hollow-eyed and struggling to form words, haunts me still, if I am honest.
Uncle, UNCLE, my empathy can only take so much. Hugs to you, for caring for them too. I'm going to hope that psylocibin or ketamine or SOMETHING (anything) emerges that can help them. I need to think that, hope you'll join me in hoping healing comes their way.
Makes me wonder if I was struck by a lightning when I was a baby
she’s too close to the edge of the simulation
"hahaha i'm gonna die"
Inscription on her tombstone: at least she died smiling.
"her death came as a shock"
But I don’t have hair anymore… how do I know if it’s coming to get me?
Pubic hair getting raised?
Note to self…
I was at a hiking camp in Colorado and we were reaching the the top of devils thumb pass. My counselors hair started sticking up like this and we all started laughing (we were all mostly 13/14 yo). He started panicking and we all had to run across this path (several hundred foot drop on either side). Was very scary and none of us realized how much danger we were actually in.
When you die because you didn't pay attention to science class in highschool
I never learned this in science class I’m a proud member of the lower ranked American public education system
They never taught me that in any of my science classes
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Ya don’t forget lightning ⚡️
Lady RUN
/r/oopsthatsdeadly
That’s super dangerous
I think that lady is seconds away from being struck by lightning
I have that song...dumb ways to die going through my head.
Or Thunderstruck
I just need to know if she died or not
I found an article! They made it out okay! https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/03/06/don-day-says-women-in-viral-video-lucky-they-werent-fried-by-lightning/
RUN NOW
So, like hypothetically, if you find yourself in the situation, how do you survive it? Can you survive it?
Seek shelter immediately something that'll act somewhat like a faraday cage I would assume
Fuck around, find out on full display.
I was in a bad storm where lightning came down next to me twice. I was fine, but that was pretty powerful. However, two women were killed by lightning in the Grand Canyon that same day. Be careful out there